How To Cook The Perfect Basmati Rice Using The Boiling Method

Step 1: The Boiling Method

I’m going to show you how to cook the perfect basmati rice using Tilda’s Original Pure Basmati. Now, there are two methods of cooking the basmati rice. You've got the traditional absorption method and the pasta method. But for this, I'm going to show you the pasta method.

Step 2: Rinse Rice

It's really straightforward and simple to do and if you have any concerns about cooking rice but you have confidence at cooking pasta, then this is the one for you. Now first of all, when it comes to quantities, Tilda will always recommend you use 60 grams per portion. That's 60 grams of dry rice per person. Now, I’m going to show you a quantity for demonstration purposes that will serve two people. So, I've got 120 grams of rice. And the first thing you need to do is rinse it under the cold tap until the water runs clear just to remove any excess starch. The rice has been rinsed.

Step 3: Place in Boiling Water

I've removed any of the excess starch just in the sieve and now I have a pound of boiling water. All you need to do is pop your rice straight in and then once it comes back up to the boil, you just want to cook it for 10 to 12 minutes. Now if you've had any problems in cooking rice past, it quite possibly is because of the rice you're using, not because of the way you're cooking it. Tilda makes every effort to make sure any broken grains are removed before packaging as it’s these broken grains that will release excess starch, making your rice soggy.

Step 4: Drain and Fluff Rice

The rice has now been boiling for 10 to 12 minutes. It's ready to remove from the heat and drain. Just shake away any excess water and then just leave the rice to rest for about 3 minutes. So after around 3 minutes of the rice resting, I can now slightly run a fork through, just to lightly fluff any individual grain and then I can just spoon onto the plate. Fantastic magical aroma and nutty, that’s coming from the lovely basmati rice. It's fantastic!

Step 5: Flavours

And I've left this plain, but if you wanted to, you could add extra flavours to the rice. There's no need to but if you just wanted to be a bit adventurous, you could perhaps add some cardamom pods or cloves, maybe even some lemon or turmeric into the pan. But just serving it straight as it is, the pure original basmati rice is beautiful and delicious and you can see just how much it’s actually given you from 120 grams of the dry rice, you've got lots of really lovely fluffy basmati rice.


If you buy a kilo pack, you’ll get 16 portions. That's less than 30 pence per person. It's an amazing value. Now if I just show you the comparison between the normal long grain rice, you've got the same quantity of dry weight rice here, the long grain, as we do to the basmati. But you don't have as much in quantity as you do to the basmati. And that's because each grain of the basmati elongates to almost twice its length. So you’ll have perfect, fluffy basmati rice every time.